Chargers Ready ‘for Everything’ : Much Could Happen to Affect How Their Picks Are Used

Welcome to the NFL draft. Rozelle roulette. Need a prescription? Try conscription.

Winners talk. Losers walk.

And then there are the Chargers.

They won too many games last year (eight) to finish low enough to get a first-round pick higher than 15th. They lost too many games (seven , including their last six) to fool anybody into thinking their immediate needs aren’t multiple.

It’s a bad year to be looking for a quarterback in the draft. And the Chargers, still in search of an immediate replacement for recently retired Dan Fouts, already have decided they won’t find one Sunday and Monday in the league’s two-day, 12-round, get-well orgy.

It’s also a bad year to have no second-round pick. The Chargers lost their 1988 No. 2 in the fruitless trade last year that brought running back Barry Redden from the Rams.

The Chargers also need help on the defensive and offensive lines, at inside linebacker, cornerback, kicker, running back and wide receiver. They should be able to get instant gratification in one of those areas--most likely running back or wide receiver or, possibly, offensive line--with the 15th pick of the first round.

Want possibles?

Try UCLA running back Gaston Green. Try Tennessee wide receiver Anthony Miller. Try Northwestern (La.) State fullback John Stephens.

Want long shots?

Try Arizona State guard/center Randall McDaniel. Try Pittsburgh fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward.

Want an interesting pick in the second round?

Try Louisiana State wide receiver Wendell Davis. Of course, the Chargers would have to trade to get into that round.

Want an even more interesting pick in the third round, if he lasts that long?

Try Ohio State linebacker/defensive end Eric Kumerow.

Green is a legitimate breakaway threat. Stephens is surprisingly fast for his size. Miller, whom the Chargers worked out at UCLA Tuesday, is smallish but a blur. McDaniel’s stock rises by the day. And the 260-pound Heyward is “a freight train with feet,” according to one draft analyst.

Davis isn’t big or fast, which probably knocks him out of first-round contention in a year in which there are more quality players at his position than anywhere else in the draft. But he’s a producer. He’d be a “reach” with a No. 1 pick and a “steal” in the third round.

Kumerow is a former high school quarterback from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. He is a 6-foot 6-inch outside linebacker who, if he keeps gaining weight, also could play defensive end.

His pedigree is fascinating. His father is a former NFL offensive lineman, Palmer Pyle (Kumerow is the surname of his mother’s current husband). And his grandfather is Anthony Accardo, a former bodyguard for Al Capone. The Bears might even pick Kumerow late in the first round and convert him to tight end.

Want a prediction?

The Chargers will trade their first-round pick for a later selection in that round. Or for two second-round selections. Or for a veteran quarterback with more promise than Mark Malone, the veteran quarterback the Chargers acquired from the Steelers earlier this month.

This year’s second round is above average compared with second rounds in past years. The first round is below average compared with most previous first rounds. Two teams--the Rams and the Raiders--have two second-round picks each. They are the teams the Chargers are most likely to deal with if they wind up obtaining anything in that round.

It is less likely, but not out of the question, that the Chargers will trade up in the first round the way they did two years ago with Minnesota to get defensive end Leslie O’Neal. That move was an unqualified success. O’Neal became the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year despite a late-season knee injury from which he’s still recovering.

The Chargers also were successful last year when they traded the fifth and 32nd selections overall to Cleveland in exchange for linebacker Chip Banks and the 24th and 49th selections overall.

“You have to plan for everything.” says Steve Ortmayer, the team’s director of football operations. “You have to plan for absolutely everything.”

To that end, Ortmayer has been arriving at the Charger offices at 6 a.m. and leaving after midnight every day now for several weeks.

For coaches and players, the regular season begins in September and ends in December. The Super Bowl follows in January. For scouts, personnel directors and general managers, the regular season never ends. The draft is their Super Bowl.

Charger owner Alex Spanos repeatedly has said the team won’t trade defensive players. Ortmayer repeats the phrase “team speed” over and over when identifying the Chargers’ needs. They try to play it close to the vest. Coach Al Saunders has cited the misinformation campaigns being waged by many NFL teams.

“We aren’t putting up a smoke screen for any individual, I don’t believe,” Saunders said. “I think our needs have been well-documented over a long period of time. They are obvious needs. Our obvious needs are a wide receiver. It’s no secret. Our obvious need for strength in the offensive line is not a secret. Our need for a dominant running back is not a secret.”

Ortmayer was more candid with reporters last week when asked a two-part question about a specific player in the draft. Part one: Do you like the player? Part two: Would you mislead us?

“Yes, I’m interested,” Ortmayer said of the player. “And yes, I’d mislead you.”

The trick is to convince other teams that you are interested in players that don’t interest you. It’s sort of like buying a house. If you let the sellers know you’re in love with their house, they’re less likely to accept your first offer.

Here’s a specific hypothetical: If the Chargers have decided the player they want in the first round is Anthony Miller; and if the Chargers are convinced that Miller will still be on the board with the 19th pick; and if Minnesota, which currently holds the 19th pick, doesn’t know Miller is the player the Chargers want, then the Chargers are in good shape if the Vikings call wanting to exchange first-round picks.

Under that scenario, the Chargers could get a player or a draft pick from the Vikings in return for the right to exchange picks. They also could still get Miller, the player they would have taken with the 15th pick. All because they kept their intentions to themselves.

Intentions also change. A week before last year’s draft, the Chargers still held the fifth pick in the first round. They had decided they would spend that pick on Miami running back Alonzo Highsmith or Auburn running back Brent Fullwood. But as they continued to evaluate, their perceptions altered.

By the weekend before the draft, they liked Miami nose tackle Jerome Brown as much as either of the two running backs. Then, less than 72 hours before the selection process began, the opportunity to acquire Banks presented itself.

Players the Chargers won’t get unless they trade up in the first round are Notre Dame wide receiver Tim Brown, Nebraska defensive end Neil Smith, South Carolina wide receiver Sterling Sharpe and Oklahoma cornerback Rickey Dixon.

Heyward is one of several players the Chargers don’t necessarily expect to last to the 15th pick of the first round. But they would have to consider taking him if he did. Others in that group include: Miami wide receiver Michael Irvin, Wisconsin offensive tackle Paul Gruber and Stanford fullback Brad Muster.

“We like Ironhead a lot,” Ortmayer said. “We think he is a bit of a phenomenon. He fits with a load-em-up and run-at-you offense.”

Which is the direction in which the post-Fouts Chargers want to head. The trouble with Heyward is his reputation for erratic personal behavior. The people at Pitt didn’t call him “Ironhead” because he majored in metallurgy.

The cold, hard facts are that the Chargers are not in a position that will guarantee then any warm, hard bodies to help a team that most experts agree has the least talent in the AFC West.

“So be it,” Ortmayer says. “But I’m not going to make trades for the sake of making trades.”